


I'm not ready for this, Master. You would know what to do.

by KittyPaw



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Anakin Skywalker is Trying, Anakin doesn't want to be a problem, Anakin is illiterate, Anakin's Jedi Training, Angst, But he's a pretty tough padawan for somebody with experience let alone someone without, Furthermore why is his background never addressed or dealt with?, Gen, I tried to do it here, Jedi Training (Star Wars), Obi-Wan Kenobi is Trying, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Mess, Padawan Anakin Skywalker, Post-Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, The Jedi Council Has a Lot to Answer For, Why does Star Wars assume slave kids can read?, Young Anakin Skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:01:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26956255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyPaw/pseuds/KittyPaw
Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi trying to be a good master to his new padawan Anakin. It's way harder than he originally thought. He really needs Qui-Gon here.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 10
Kudos: 140





	I'm not ready for this, Master. You would know what to do.

List of things Obi-Wan Kenobi still needed to do for Anakin Skywalker, in no particular order:

1\. Teach him how to swim

2\. Teach him how to read & write

3\. Get him to stop cussing in Huttese

4\. Get his citizenship confirmed

5\. Get his slave transmitter chip taken out

_This shouldn't be that hard. Why was this so hard_?

Because he wasn't fooling anybody with the whole "no attachments" thing - he was _definitely_ attached to Qui-Gon Jinn. So his death was hurting him more than he wanted to admit. And Anakin needed his undivided attention right now as his new apprentice - something Obi-Wan was trying and failing to give. Not to mention this wasn't just any ordinary padawan - he was the Chosen One, with more power than he knew what do with; he had been a slave, so his mentality about masters and no possessions was different; he wasn't raised in the temple, so he didn't know the ordinary Jedi teachings a padawan would normally know; and he was his first padawan, so he had zero experience.

Yeah. Qui-Gon was _definitely_ more qualified for the job. Figures he couldn't be there.

As far as teaching him to swim went, he'd assumed it was obvious that Anakin would already know how. Why wouldn't he? Every kid knows how to swim. But he got very harshly reminded by his own mind that slaves didn't exactly have time to learn things their masters didn't want them to, and besides - where was somebody growing up on the desolate rock Anakin was from supposed to learn to swim? And then he got much more gently reminded by a small, innocent, apologetic Anakin.

Reading and writing was another thing he'd automatically assumed Anakin would know how to do. And another thing he realized too late he obviously wouldn't - _since when were slaves learning how to read and write on a daily basis_? Anakin thought he was going to be in trouble for it, which broke Obi-wan's heart into even smaller pieces as he stammered that no, it was okay, he would try to teach him.

And as for cussing in Huttese... Obi-Wan didn't want to take away Anakin's native language - a tie to who he was - but also didn't want him to be saying stuff that could get him in trouble with the other masters, and definitely didn't want it spreading to the other padawans. It was not proper Jedi-like behavior, and yet Obi-Wan wasn't sure how to correct Anakin when he was such a mess of a master for this kid.

And since _nothing_ could be easy for him, the council wasn't listening when he asked how it was going with Anakin's process to becoming a citizen of the Galactic Republic. They kept getting all vague, like, "It's going as fast as we could hope for it to," or "Anakin will most certainly become a citizen." Seriously, did they really think he was going to fall for that? He may not be the most qualified master for Anakin, but they couldn't expect him to fall for the fact that they hadn't really told him anything.

And the transmitter chip... Obi-Wan was just procrastinating. He hated healers and everything medical. He felt pretty selfish about it too.

 _For the Force's sake he was such a karking mess_.

And great. Now _he_ was cussing in Huttese.

So after getting a good night's sleep and trying to meditate, Obi-Wan decided he was going to start working on his list, starting with number 5: Get his slave transmitter chip taken out.

"I don't like the healers," Anakin announced as they walked down the hallway. Obi-Wan cracked a bit of a smile.

"Yeah. Neither do I." He allowed himself to laugh a little, which felt good, since he hadn't laughed in over a week. "But you have to go there for your surgery."

"I don't like surgery either," Anakin told him. He paused, and then he added, "Um, why _do_ I have to go through surgery?"

"We're getting your slave chip taken out," Obi-Wan informed him, fighting the urge to bite his lip. He had to keep it together and act like an adult - the mature knight a padawan's master _should_ be. He also had to fight the urge to let out a sigh of relief when Anakin's eyes lit up.

"Really? As in, for _real_?" Anakin gasped.

Obi-Wan smiled, and nodded. _Maybe he could do this after all_.

Obi-Wan had _tried_ to tackle number three next. "You know, those aren't really nice words - you wouldn't want the masters catching you saying them," he warned as non-sternly as possible.

Anakin bit his lip. "Why, what would they do?"

Obi-Wan clamped his mouth shut, wondering what in the _galaxy_ he was supposed to say to that.

"I'm serious, I haven't really learned what it means to get in trouble with the masters here. It would be really nice to know," Anakin added. Yeah, Obi-Wan was going to leave this one for a later date.

He'd though number two was going to be harder than it actually was. Obi-Wan really didn't know what he was doing, but he knew he must be doing _something_ right, because Anakin was figuring it out. "Aurek," he muttered as he wrote it down. "Nern, aurek, um... um... krill?" He looked up at Obi-Wan for confirmation, who nodded. With new assurance, Anakin turned back to his work, recounting what he'd already done. "Aurek, nern, aurek, krill... isk... nern." He looked up at Obi-Wan, who was beaming, causing Anakin to smile too.

"Fantastic! Do you know what I just taught you to spell?"

Anakin wore a look of consideration, and Obi-Wan could practically hear him relaying all the sounds Obi-Wan had taught him in his head. "Um... A..na...kin. Hey!" Anakin brightened. "That's my name! You taught me how to spell my name?"

"Do you think," Obi-Wan said tentatively, "given the sounds you know... you could figure out your last name, too?"

Anakin didn't look sure, but he nodded. "I'll try." Obi-Wan wasn't about to give him the lecture about doing and doing not... he knew that was the last thing Anakin needed. "Senth... krill..." He paused. "Isk?"

Obi-Wan shook his head. "Your name is kind of weird - the yirt makes that sound in your name."

Anakin's face scrunched up. "This is weird." Then he turned back to his paper. "Senth... krill... yirk... wesk... aurek... leth... krill... resh?"

Obi-Wan smiled proudly. "There is an esk between the krill and the resh, but other than that, exactly!"

Anakin nodded, bit his lip, and looked back down, writing his name: _ANAKIN SKYWALKER._

"Perfect!" Obi-Wan smiled, and Anakin looked back up at him, grinning at his success. "You just won yourself a trip to Dex's Diner. Let's go!"

He'd even helped Anakin sound out the words on the menu for the diner. Anakin was a quick learner, and even though he wasn't _quite_ there yet, he was getting there. Obi-Wan was clearly not qualified to be his master, but maybe he was good enough to try. _Try_. This was one case in which Master Yoda didn't know what he was talking about.

Emboldened by his success with Anakin's literacy, he then moved to number one - teaching Anakin to swim. He looked a little uneasy at the sight of so much water in one place, asking Obi-Wan, "If there's that much water here, why don't they send it to places like Tatooine, where we really needed it?" Obi-Wan's stomach clenched - how was he supposed to answer that?

Better yet, why hadn't anybody _thought_ of that?

Anakin continued, "Moisture farmers did their best, and occasionally somebody would arrive from off-world, though that wasn't very often on Tatooine. Sometimes we had to walk a pretty long way to get water from people who had it or sold it. Often the stuff my mom would bring back wasn't for _us_. It very rarely was. If there's this much water _anywhere_ in the galaxy, why not bring it to the desert worlds in the Outer Rim?"

So Obi-Wan just told the truth. "They probably should."

"Just like the Republic should make people follow all those laws about slavery," Anakin added.

"People around here are fairly ignorant about life in the Outer Rim," Obi-Wan told him softly, and it almost felt good to say it - like now that it was out he didn't have to feel bad about it anymore. And Anakin would't feel like the only one who thought the Jedi weren't perfect.

"When I grow up, I'm going to free all the slaves out there," he pledged. "And I'm going to start a system where they bring water there." Obi-Wan cracked a smile.

"You'll do very well handling water if you know how to swim in it," Obi-Wan told him. Anakin nodded, and teaching him wasn't too hard, one he'd wasted ten minutes marveling at the fact that he was immersed in _water_. And hey, maybe Anakin deserved to have that.

"My heart breaks into littler pieces every time that kid tells me a story, and it's not just a one time thing - it's his normal life. The stuff he went through on a daily basis. I just want to be able to walk up to him and tell him he's officially a citizen of the republic." Obi-Wan knew that in those three sentences, he'd admitted to emotion, attachment, and desires, breaking the Jedi code in a zillion ways, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

"We will likely have to wait another year," someone finally admitted. And hey, that was more information than Obi-Wan had had five minutes ago.

So then he said the same vague things to Anakin that the council had been saying to him: "You will be a citizen, Anakin Skywalker." And even though he was pretty sure Anakin saw what he was doing, it was still enough for him to have that security - he was _free_. Officially.

Obi-Wan could hardly believe it. He'd gotten it together and was proving to be an _okay_ master for Anakin, who seemed to like him. All of his less than ideal qualities seemed to escape Anakin's notice, and even he, a person Anakin was getting to know so well, could not escape Anakin's eyes for only seeing the good in people.

Well, except for in his slave masters - Anakin had quite a few colorful Huttese words to describe Watto and Gardulla, and Obi-Wan didn't bother to correct him.

_Maybe he could do this after all_.


End file.
